The Aztexan

The Aztex will host USL-1 rivals Puerto Rico Islanders on Friday night at Nelson Field at 7:30 PM. The game will be Austin's last exhibition match before the start of the regular season.

Tickets for this match are $18 and $22, the just-announced regular season ticket price.

The Islanders most recently faced Mexico's Cruz Azul at home in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League semifinals, winning that match 2-0.

Also potentially significant late for the Islanders was the debut of the tall Kyle Veris as a defender. Veris has CONCACAF experience having played for the Galaxy in the 2006 CONCACAF Champions Cup, and also is a veteran of the Norwegian second division. (Veris played a role in getting his side promoted to the top flight of Norwegian football but was released after promotion.) It is possible Manager Colin Clarke will feature Veris and possibly sit Scott Jones in the second leg.

Another disappointment for Puerto Rico was the inability to spring Kendall Jagdeosingh free on counter attacking goal scoring opportunity. The Islanders seemed too tired and too committed to defending to take chances going forward.

Puerto Rico will be heading from here to Mexico City's Estadio Azul for the second leg of that Champions League semifinal next Tuesday. If they advance to the finals, they will face one of the two other Mexican powerhouses remaining in the championship: Santos Laguna or Atlante.

Though the first games of the USL-1 season begin next weekend on April 11, the first Aztex game will be the home opener on April 18 vs. the Minnesota Thunder. That will be the first of 3 home games in a single week: Austin will also host the Vancouver Whitecaps on Tuesday, April 21, and the Cleveland City Stars the following Saturday, April 25.

As for the last game, supporters will meet before & after at the Nomad Bar (map). See you there, and at the game!

Labels: CONCACAF, exhibition, gameday, USL-1

The inaugural year of the CONCACAF Champions League continues on, with group-stage play wrapping up today through Thursday.

Focusing on teams from U.S. leagues (MLS and USL-1), we have two games today (Tues. Oct. 28).

First, El Salvador's L.A. Firpo play their first game against the Houston Dynamo (their September match was postponed by Hurricane Ike, and will be played on Nov. 26). Kickoff is 9:00 PM CT, televised only on Fox Soccer Channel (FSC).

Today also sees Mexico's Atlante vs. the Montreal Impact, both of which have already secured their spot in the quarterfinals. This game also starts at 9:00 PM CT. It will be televised live on ESPN International and Galavision (channel 76 on Time Warner in Austin), and delayed until midnight on FSC.

Tomorrow (Wed. Oct. 29) the action continues for U.S. league teams. USL-1 champions Puerto Rico Islanders play Panama's Tauro FC at 7:00 PM CT on ESPN Int'l (or delayed on FSC at 10:00 PM CT). A win for the Islanders sees them through for sure; a draw might do it, too.

Last but not least, poor DC United has to play Honduras' CD Marathón. Coming into the game with only one sorry point after 5 games, and having just missed the MLS playoffs, I doubt they'll have much invested in this game. But who knows? You can find out yourself starting at 7:00 PM CT on FSC or ESPN Int'l.

Actually, I think if I were Fox Soccer, I'd swap tomorrow's games and show the more meaningful Puerto Rico-Tauro match live, and delay the DC-Marathón game.

As usual, Wikipedia has good details, tables, etc. For complete TV listings, including the games I didn't mention, see the CONCACAF TV page and the Fox Soccer schedule.

Update: results:
LA Firpo 1-1 Houston
Atlante 2-1 Montreal (both advance)
DC United 2-4 Marathón (DC eliminated, Marathón advances)
Tauro FC 2-2 Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico advances)

Labels: CONCACAF, MLS, USL-1

This is a big week for the USL First Division.

First, there are two CONCACAF Champions League games tonight, featuring the two U.S. club teams who are doing best in the tournament so far. Not the MLS teams D.C. United or Houston Dyanamo, but USL-1 sides Montreal Impact and Puerto Rico Islanders. (Okay, so the teams aren't actually U.S. teams, but they both play in a U.S.-based league.)

Tonight in Trinidad, the Montreal Impact will to play Joe Public, and in Corona Stadium in Mexico, the Puerto Rico Islanders play Santos Laguna.

Then, in just 4 days, the Islanders turn around and play in the USL-1 Championship. They play the other Canadian USL-1 team (is there a pattern here?), the Vancouver Whitecaps.

Just think, next year we'll be watching the new Aztex team dominate both of these competitions.

In other USL-1 news, the Carolina Railhawks have gone through some big changes this week: President, General Manager & part owner Chris Economides is gone, as is head coach Scott Schweitzer. They also have some new ownership investment coming in, in the person of Bob Young. Young was formerly CEO of Red Hat Linux, and more recently the founder of the Internet self-publishing site Lulu.com.

Labels: CONCACAF, USL-1